Great googly moogly. The crisis of faith this must be causing in so many people. I cannot even begin to imagine how this must feel for them.[/quote]

You'd THINK so, but then I remember the Catholic part of my own family. Ladies who never read newspapers and certainly not books (not even the Bible. The priests tell them they should not read the Bible without a proper priestly authority there to interpret it for them). My grandmother told me that this sort of thing happens in all churches from time to time, but the Catholics are singled out in the media. At this point I SHOULD have just started bleating at her like a sheep, but I fear even such an entire lack of subtlety would have gone right over her head.

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"The U.S. is the only nation on Earth to pass from barbarism into decadence without once passing through an era of civilization."

All of the people I've talked to are denying that it's a real problem. I'm hearing things like "Oh, it's just a few of those priests, and people are making a lot of noise about something that really isn't that big."

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Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are serviley crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blind faith. — Thomas Jefferson

Last week, retired Bishop Giacomo Babini of the Italian town of Grosseto told the Catholic Pontifex website that the Catholic pedophile scandal is being orchestrated by the "eternal enemies of Catholicism, namely the freemasons and the Jews, whose mutual entanglements are not always easy to see through… I think that it is primarily a Zionist attack, in view of its power and refinement. They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God-killers."

You might think that the 81-year-old Babini had already said more than enough for one day, but once some people pop, they just can't stop. "The Holocaust was a shame for all of humanity," the good bishop told the world, "but now we have to look at it without rhetoric and with open eyes. Don't believe that Hitler was merely crazy. The truth is that the Nazis' criminal fury was provoked by the Jews' economic embezzlement, by which they choked the German economy." He concluded that the Jews' "guilt is graver than what Christ predicted would happen to them, saying 'do not cry for me, but for your own children.'"

So the official list of fault runs thusly:The DevilThe Sexual RevolutionGaysThe MediaFeminists (okay, I haven't seen this one in print, but from experience I know it's somehow our fault)and now: Christ killing Jews and Zionists.

I know I'm missing some; this is just working from memory.

Edit in: The Freemasons (How could I miss them?)

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"The U.S. is the only nation on Earth to pass from barbarism into decadence without once passing through an era of civilization."

I have heard any amount of stories from guys about the 'creepy' priest they all knew about growing up. The onus was put on the kids to keep away from him and protect each other from him... all without actually coming out and accusing the guy because any accusations would be met with a similar response, koffeewitch.

My dad says the same thing happened when he was growing up--indirect ways were found of keeping kids away from priests that everyone knew would fondle anything in their path. It's endemic, institutionalised evasion of all accountability. It was countrywide in Ireland but even now a comprehensive investigation has yet to take place; the Church is still hedging. It makes me sick.

I'm always kind of amazed by the way parents & people who should know better look away. This is NOT church related, BTW, so you may wanna skip it. There was a substitute teacher when I was a kid, Mr. B. Complete ephebophile literally known as "Chester the Molester". He was a last resort sub when they couldn't find anybody else, he'd been diddling teenage boys since my father's older brother was in junior high & EVERYBODY KNEW ABOUT IT. My first class with him he'd been rude to me, so I mentioned it during dinner to my parents. My dad started laughing & was amazed they still let him teach. Of course my parents did/said nothing, he wasn't diddling me. A few days later he was gone because he'd propositioned several boys & one turned him down & went to the admin. 7-12, he taught me numerous times. It was never more than a week before he'd get caught & shuffled on, only to be called again when needed

Not too long ago, a guy from hs made some ref on his FB page about molesters & I brought up Chet. The only reactions? Came from WOMEN. Women that actually thought that he was their boyfriend's "Uncle Chester". They never questioned why he gave them money, let them borrow his car, he did their laundry, etc. etc etc, & was always hanging around. They were all horrified, not a guy said a fucking peep about it.

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"You're cute, like a velvet glove cast in iron. And like a gas chamber, a real fun gal."

Sadly sometimes the parents of these victimized children looked the other way. I remember my mother telling me about a priest who was always putting his arm around her shoulder and the shoulders of her friends so he could fondle their developing breasts. When my mom complained of this to my grandmother, she was sharply rebuked with a "Don't you dare say such a horrible thing about a man of God". Fortunately my mother went to one of her friend's moms and told her about Priest Grabby Hands. Her friend's mom had the wherewithal to raise some hell and major stink. I've never known what possible reasoning my grandmother had to ignore my mother's call for help. I guess the Devil can manipulate innocent children to tell lies about priests. Or something like that.

Oh, yeah. They're back in the news again all right. I know that the Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest groups of people on the planet & that they can keep throwing money at things for a long time, but shit is getting out of hand with hiding, transferring of kiddie diddlers. Some responsibility needs to be taken. I mean, the whole celibacy of priests thing had less to do with chastity than it did with priests having families/children that demanded church funds. They set up an abuse hotline in Germany that did a LOT of business the first day it launched. And a new letter from 1963 claims they wanted to start some sort of pedo/homosexual island. Bonkers. Just bonkers.

Thanks for digging up that info, Aural. While I certainly am not in favor of our courts/governments using this as a part of the penile code, I don't see why an offender who WANTS to take it in a therapeutic setting should be denied under medical supervision. I don't think it's the greatest thing for men's physical health but if it works for some men and they don't suffer from the possible side effects, why not?

I really don't have much hope for these wackjobs who go after kids either; and god knows they just keep finding victims, some of which grow into perps themselves. The sick cycle goes on and on. I once did some research on this issue and it seems that the problem is NOT universal. There are and have been cultures where this problem is virtually unknown to the point that members of such societies cannot even fathom/comprehend the anthropologist/interviewer's questions about it. Naturally the status accorded to women and children in a given culture is often a primary indicator of the degree the incest/pedophilia taboo is violated. Speaking of which, I see that the incest cases known to the Catholic church and Bishops are back in the news. I'm still waiting on a Bishop to end up in jail as a rape accessory, but to my knowledge this has yet to happen.

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"The U.S. is the only nation on Earth to pass from barbarism into decadence without once passing through an era of civilization."

This wiki entry is helpful, at least in terms of understanding why it's not utilized in the USA.

Also, from my understanding, it *can* work, but is by no means full proof. The flesh may be unwilling, but the spirit can & has turned to object rape to fill the void. And really, any schmuck can get testosterone off of the internet to counter the effects of the Depo.

I hold little hope for paedophile rehabilitation. Basically, what gets you off gets you off. If you are a paedophile you are always going to be one. You may be able to channel it into a sexual relationship with a grown person to keep your ass out of prison, but you're still going to be thinking about what really gets you off: kids.

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"You're cute, like a velvet glove cast in iron. And like a gas chamber, a real fun gal."

Okay, this is NOT new news, but it's new to me. Did you guys know that Depo Prevera has been given to sexual predators (mainly child molesters) because it can effectively take away their urges and fantasies...Psychiatrists claim that some of their repeat offender clients have begged for it. We do not use it in the US to treat sex offenders (at least according to the dated article I read), but apparently it's been used in other countries with some success for decades.

What do you guys think? Since these crimes are largely about violence, anger, self-loathing, etc. I wonder how treatment works...maybe the perp is given the medication, then continues seeing a psych to work on the mental compulsion aspect. I'm sorta intrigued by this; I always thought that you could do little with child molesters except keep them locked away from kids...

Opinions, anyone?

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"The U.S. is the only nation on Earth to pass from barbarism into decadence without once passing through an era of civilization."